Punjab Cabinet Committee on Privatisation, in its meeting held under Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mohammad Basharat Raja, decided on Friday to lease unused state land for corporate farming. Fi-nance Minister Mohsin Khan Leghari, Senior Member Punjab Board of Revenue Zahid Akhtar Zaman, Member Colonies Shahid Niaz, Secretary Law, Secretary Agriculture and other officials concerned attended the meeting.
The Board of Revenue proposed keeping the leasing period of state land for corporate farming for 20 years. Chairman Committee Muhammad Basharat Raja regretted that on the one hand the country was importing wheat and on the other thousands of acres of state land had been lying barren. “Utilising this land will encourage corporate farming for ensuring food security,” he said. Finance Minister Mohsin Leghari said that the government initiative would prevent illegal use of the government land and would be helpful in increasing revenue.
The cabinet committee also approved auctioning of 6,572 kanals of state land to a cement factory in Dera Ghazi Khan. The meeting was told that district and divisional price assessment committees had fixed the rate as per the market rate, and the highest bid was placed by the cement factory. On the other hand Chief Minister Punjab has reconstituted the special committee on the situation in Occupied Kashmir.
Provincial Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Raja Basharat has been appointed as the convener of the committee. According to notification Members of Provincial Assembly Abdullah Waraich, Nadeem Qureshi, Mahendra Pal Singh, Neelam Hayat Malik and Chief Secretary have been nominated as mem-bers. One member from Muslim League (Q) and two opposition members will also be nominated as members. Secretary Information Punjab has been appointed as the secretary and member of the committee.
TORs issued in the notification read that the committee will monitor human rights violations in Occupied Kashmir.
